MVCHA 2A ALL-STAR GAME: Blue All-Stars roll to 8-2 victory

Staff report

Published
10:43 pm CST, Tuesday, January 31, 2017

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MVCHA 2A ALL-STAR GAME: Blue All-Stars roll to 8-2 victory

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EAST ALTON — Tuesday night’s Class 2A Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association All-Star Game was a case of too much firepower for the Blue squad, which rolled to an 8-2 victory over the Red All-Stars.

O’Fallon’s Graham Sudduth scored a hat trick to lead the Blue All-Stars to the victory at the East Alton Ice Arena. The popular annual exhibition contest featured plenty of fireworks with pregame player introductions as well as between period with the annual skills competitions.

But the biggest show was put on by the players.

Tuesday, the Blue team outshot the Red 53-29 and pulled away from a 1-0 lead after the first period to 5-2 lead heading int the third period.

Bethalto’s Nolan Kahl was one of the bright spots for the Red All-Stars. His goal at 14:43 of the second period was assisted by Edwardsville’s Mark Tucker and Sam Gibbons. It got his team within a 3-1 deficit, but the Red team could manage only an unassisted third-period goal from Edwardsville’s Will Schuster the rest of the way.

The game was the second All-Star contest of the week. Monday night, the 1A All-Star contest was held, also at East Alton, with the Blue All-Stars claiming a 5-3 victory over the red.

The MVCHA playoffs will get under way in both classes on Thursday with a set of first-round games of opening best-of-three series. The playoffs will run to the last week of February.

Tuesday night, Sudduth got things rolling for the Blue All-Stars with a goal at 10:41 of the first period. That was followed in the second period by goals from Collinsville’s Cory Sperry, Columbia’s Garrett Pool, O’Fallon’s Hayden, and Columbia’s Cam Nowak.

In the third period, the Blue All-Stars got two goals from Sudduth and one from O’Fallon’s Jack Wallace.

In Thursday’s Class 2A playoff series openers, O’Fallon will face Bethalto at 7:15 p.m. and Freeburg/Waterloo will play Collinsville at 8:45 at the East Alton Ice Arena. In Class 1A series openers, Triad will face East Alton-Wood River at 8 p.m. and Highland will take on Alton at 9:25 p.m. at the Granite City Ice Rink.